Rags to Riches (TV series)

Rags to Riches
Genre	Drama Musical Comedy
Created by	Bernie Kukoff
Starring	Joseph Bologna Douglas Seale Kimiko Gelman Bridget Michele Tisha Campbell-Martin Blanca De Garr Heidi Zeigler
Opening theme	Mark Mueller (lyrics)
Composer(s)	J. Peter Robinson (1.1)
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	20
Production
Executive producer(s)	Bernie Kukoff Leonard Hill Andrew Schneider
Cinematography	Paul Onorato
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	48 minutes
Production company(s)	Leonard Hill Films New World Television
Release
Original network	NBC
Audio format	Monaural
Original release	March 9, 1987 (1987-03-09) – January 15, 1988 (1988-01-15)

Rags to Riches is an American musical comedy drama series that was broadcast on NBC for two seasons from 1987 to 1988. Set in the 1960s, the series tells the story of Nick Foley, a self-made millionaire who adopts five orphan girls. Each episode included musical scenes of hit songs from the era sung by the girls integrated into the plot (usually with the lyrics changed so that they provided comment on the storyline).

Synopsis

Nick Foley (Joseph Bologna), the millionaire owner of Foley's Frozen Foods, is a street-wise New Jersey-born businessman with a playboy lifestyle. In the TV movie pilot which launched the series, Foley attempts to develop a family man image by bringing a group of six orphaned girls—who were featured in a newspaper story that they refused to be separated from each other—to live in the mansion in Bel Air where he lives with his butler, John Clapper (Douglas Seale). He does this to help seal a business deal and does not intend to keep them there permanently. But his plans change when he grows fond of the girls, and he ends up adopting them.

The adjustment is huge on both sides, as the girls acquire a father with no parenting experience. Having spent the past few years in a rundown children's home, the girls now find themselves in the lap of luxury. The series follows the trials and tribulations of the girls and a man who has previously never loved anyone but himself and often struggles to cope with his new family.

In the pilot for the series, Foley takes in a group of six girls. However in the subsequent episodes of the show, Foley has adopted five girls: Rose (aged 17), Diane (aged 16), Marva (aged 15), Patti (aged 14) and Mickey (aged 8). The sixth girl, Nina, appears only in the pilot (after the pilot was made, it was decided that six children was too many for the series cast, so Nina was written out of the series as having been reunited with her birth mother).

The series differed from regular comedy-dramas in that the girls would frequently burst into song to help explain their feelings or move along the plot. Each episode therefore contained at least two musical scenes with covers of hit songs from the 1960s with the lyrics changed to provide commentary on the storyline of the episode.

Reception

Promoted with the tagline, "If you liked Annie, you'll like Rags to Riches", ratings for the series were not strong enough for its Friday night time slot, and NBC canceled the show part way through its second season.^[1][2]

Musical Numbers

Mark Mueller wrote new comedic lyrics for existing hit songs from the '50s and early '60s that were featured in most episodes of both seasons of the show. He also wrote the lyrics to the show's theme song.

Cast and characters

Episodes

Season 1

Season 2

DVD releases

On June 5, 2012, Image Entertainment released Rags to Riches: The Complete Series on Region 1 DVD.^[3]

dtp entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Germany. Season 1 was released on May 13, 2011 and season 2 on October 27, 2011.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Rags to Riches at the Internet Movie Database (Pilot TV-movie)
• Rags to Riches at the Internet Movie Database
• Rags to Riches at TV.com
• Rags to Riches at epguides.com